Vishnu Sahasra Naamam-Vol III-RR-edit.pub - Ibiblio

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offerings. SrI BhaTTar explains what these "great offerings" are, or why the
offerings to Him are great or supreme: He can be worshiped without killing of
any animal - na tatra paSu ghAto'bhUt (mahA. SAnti. 337. 9); the sacrifices
to Him that He likes best are the offering of our mind, buddhi, and indriya-s
to Him, and best of all, Atma-samarpaNa (ahamevan mAm juhomi - tait. nArA.
41; pratyagAtma havishTvAt, ahimsram AtMAdi havih yasya syAt sa
mahAhavih).
SrI v. v. rAmAnujan refers us to nammAzhvAr's Atma-samarpaNam to Him in
pASuram 2. 3. 4 in tiruvAimozhi - "enadAviyuL kalanda peru nal udavik
kaimmARu enadAvi ozhindEn ini mILvadenbadu uNDE…".
SrI ALavandAr also refers to Atma samarpaNam in his stotra ratnam (53) -
"aham adyaiva mayA samarpitah". Even though this AtmA belongs to Him to
start with, we offer it to Him as if it is an offering from us of something that
belongs to us, and He is kind enough to accept it as a supreme offering.
The concept of offering the AtmA as an oblation to the fire is to be
understood as referring to the burning of the feeling, or getting rid of the
feeling once for all, that our AtmA belongs to us and that we have independent
ownership of our soul.
SrI baladeva vidyA bhUshaN gives an interpretation similar to that of SrI
BhaTTar, and gives different examples of the great offerings that He likes -
namaskAra, svAdhyAya, aushadi rUpatvena ati-pavitratvAt anya havibhyo
mahAnti havImshi yasya sa mahA-havih
(He is called mahA-havih because He has the offerings that are suprmely pure,
in the form of namaskAra, chanting of veda-s, and offerings of tulasi leaves).
He quotes the following in support:
tulasI dala mAtreNa jalasya culukena ca |
vikrINIte svam AtmAnam bhaktebhyo bhakta-vatsalah ||
120
(quote from vishNu dharma)
"bhagavAn who dearly loves His devotees, just trades away His own Self in
exchange for the offering of some tulasi leaves or a palm's content of water".